Good Morning Vietnam!

View from my Hotel Room

After waking at 4:30 to catch my 7:00 flight to Hanoi, I arrived tired and a bit dazed.  After spending the day here, I'm even more dazed!  What a place!  Walking down the street in the old quarter is a challenge to say the least.  Because the streets are narrow, not too many autos attempt to drive here, but bicycle rickshaws and motorcycles make up for that.  The sidewalk is used as a motorcycle parking lot, so no walking there.  Everyone beeps their horn continuously.  So, it's noisy, dirty and fascinating.  I've never been anywhere like it.  The "restaurants" are the little hole in the wall places where you sit down on tiny plastic stools and they bring you bowls of noodles with each place serving their own version.  They have bia hoi which is beer made daily and which sells out quickly.  The "temples" I've visited are very different from the Buddhist wats of Thailand with conquerors, horses and creatures as the object of worship and offerings of boxes of cookies and cakes, canned sodas and plates of fruit and money.   And, speaking of money, the currency here is the Vietnamese Dong and $5 US is the equivalent of 100,000 Dong.  Talk about being confusing!  I met an Australian woman who had made herself a chart.  Speaking of meeting people . . .

Today while waiting at customs to be cleared into Vietnam, I met a 25 year old retired jockey from England who was going to law school after his travels.  He said he won 137 races before gaining weight and retiring.  Also met Wilm and Willa from Holland.  We talked by the lake and she said the cleverest thing regarding islanders who seem to live less frantic lives than we do, and I quote, "We have the clocks; they have the time."  I've never heard that expression before.  I also met Jade from South Africa but moving to Canada after her trip alone to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and with her fiance to Thailand - a pre-honeymoon.  We had noodles together.  My Hotel, Hanoi Style, is just that - it's decorated in traditional old style with ornately carved furniture.  It's very nice and in the architectural style that's prevalent here - tall (5-6 stories) skinny buildings with a European influence.  So, after all the discussions about whether people like or dislike Vietnam, I'm going to have to side with the "likes".  You have to experience it for yourself.

The Lake

Hotel Street

Gateway to the Old Quarter